Rich, chocolate, and gooey chocolate fudge cake with Matchmakers, Mini Eggs, and DELICIOUS chocolate buttercream frosting! Perfect Easter chocolate cake!
Preheat your oven to 160C/140C fan and grease & line two 8″/20cm cake tins – leave to the side.
In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate & butter until melted – mine takes two minutes! Pour the coffee granules into 125ml boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
In a separate large bowl add the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, golden caster sugar, and light brown sugar and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well!
Mix the eggs with the buttermilk – add the chocolate mix & the egg mix to the dry ingredients and stir together, try not to over mix it – it should be thick but runny when finished and no flour lumps!
Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens). Once baked leave to cool in the tin and remove afterwards, or leave for 10-15 minutes and cool on a wire rack for a softer cake.
For the Chocolate Frosting!
With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes).
Gradually add the icing sugar & cocoa powder alternatively with the evaporated milk until all is incorporated and then add the vanilla essence – beat for a couple of minutes so its extra smooth & creamy.
The more evaporated milk you add the more runny it’ll be, and I have found about 100ml-125ml is perfect for me!
For the Decoration!
Add one of your sponges to a plate, and slather on some of the frosting. Add on the second sponge, and slather on some frosting again.
With the rest of the frosting, cover the sides evenly.
Add the Matchmakers round the edge next to each other. However, you have to do it quite quickly so that the frosting is basically the glue! You can use whatever flavour you like, and I used just over two packets.
Once the matchmakers are covering the sides, use a ribbon to keep the cake in place, and basically help make it set.
Decorate the top with Mini Eggs - I obviously went in colour order but this is optional.
Notes
I recommend putting the cakes in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before trying to decorate with buttercream on the sides as the sponge is so lovely and light it might crumble a bit if you don’t!
If you can’t access the buttermilk, you can make it yourself by using 75ml of whole milk, with 1tbsp of lemon juice and whisking together
You can also use double cream in the frosting, but I would 100% recommend the evaporated milk over it – it makes such a yummy frosting I would just sit and eat it all with a spoon if I could.
This cake will last for 3 days in an airtight container!
I used two 'family packs' of Mini Eggs to find the right amount of colours, but you don't have to obviously. I just think it looks very satisfying!
You could use Cadbury's Finger biscuits instead if you like, but I think Matchmakers look a bit more 'nest like' for Easter!